The present invention relates to fluoroscopic imaging of the heart, and more particularly to detecting and tracking an ablation catheter tip in fluoroscopic image sequences of the heart.
Cardiac arrhythmia is an abnormality of the electrical rhythm of the heart. Cardiac arrhythmia is often treated using radiofrequency ablation to modify the electrical pathways of the heart. In order to construct an electrical map of the heart, different catheters are inserted into the arteries and guided to the heart. Based on such an electrical map, doctors attempt to identify locations of abnormal electrical activity in the heart. An ablation catheter with a special tip is used to perform the ablation by applying energy (radiofrequency) at the locations of abnormal electrical activity. This destroys, or ablates, the tissue at these locations and interrupts the triggers for the heart arrhythmia.
The entire ablation operation is monitored with real-time fluoroscopic images. Fluoroscopic images are X-ray images taken over a period of time resulting in an image sequence. It is desirable to detect and track the ablation catheter tip in such a fluoroscopic image sequence.